Stephens analyst Farha Aslam is making Tyson Foods her firm's new Best Idea in Food and Agribusiness as she believes the company is well positioned for long-term growth. Consumers' growing interest in protein rich foods is creating opportunities to innovate new products, create brands in previously commodity categories, and improve margins, she added. Aslam reiterates an Overweight rating and $85 price target on the shares.

10/07/16

PIVT

10/07/16DOWNGRADEPIVTSell

Tyson Foods downgraded to Sell from Hold at Pivotal Research

Pivotal analyst Timothy Ramey downgraded Tyson Foods to Sell and slashed his price target to $40 from $100 due to the broiler price-fixing alleged in the class action complaint filed on September 2. Ramey said the complain alleges supply collusion occurred through nonpublic data exchange; detailed industry reports compiled on a daily or weekly basis by Agri Stats. Supposedly, the data has telling clues as to the identity of the other industry participants, making it is easy for the industry to collude on production cuts since they provide non-public information to Agri Stats on future production intentions. The analyst wondered why margins improved dramatically over the past seven years in a historically undisciplined industry. Ramey believes the class-action suit has merit and will lead to intense scrutiny of the broiler industry and questions the sustainability of chicken margins. He expects Tyson shares will be pressured until this complex issue is resolved and damages could be very substantial.

10/07/16

10/07/16DOWNGRADE

On The Fly: Top five analyst downgrades

Catch up on today's top five analyst downgrades with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Tyson Foods (TSN) downgraded to Sell from Hold at Pivotal Research with analyst Timothy Ramey citing the broiler price-fixing alleged in the class action complaint filed on September 2. 2. SolarEdge (SEDG) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman while the firm also downgraded First Solar (FSLR) to Neutral from Buy. 3. CIT Group (CIT) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel with analyst Christopher Brendler saying investors should sell into the rally that will result from the "impressive" price that the company received for its aircraft business and the approval of its capital plan by the Fed. 4. Fifth Third (FITB) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies with analyst Ken Usdin saying the shares are reasonably valued following the recent rally. 5. Blackhawk (HAWK) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill with analyst David Chu saying the firm's channel checks indicate that conversions to EMV, the new standard for chip-based debit/credit card transactions, are taking longer than expected, which he believes could impact Blackhawk's 2016 guidance and expectations for 2017. This list is just a portion of The Fly's full analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here.